Liar & Spy

Stead, Rebecca. Liar & Spy. New York: Wendy Lamb Books, 2012. Print.

Newbery Medal winner Rebecca Stead's most recent book is about a seventh grade boy named Georges (after Georges Seurat) whose family cannot to afford to keep their house so they move into an apartment building. This middle grade (MG) novel is  part mystery and part family drama.

While Rebecca Stead's previous novel When You Reach Me pays tribute to Madeleine L'Engle's classic novel about time travel, A Wrinkle in Time, Liar & Spy is reminiscent of Louise Fitzhugh's  Harriet the Spy. (All three titles are Newbery winners.)

Highly recommended.

Three great books about courageous girls

Fitzhugh, Louise. Harriet, the Spy. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.

Kathleen T. Hornig wrote a fascinating (and brave!) essay about the impact Louise Fitzhugh's classic novel had on her life, On Spies and Purple Socks. Kathleen also wrote From Cover to Cover which is the definitive book on reviewing children's literature. I follow her excellent guidelines when I write reviews for School Library Journal, but I'm a bit lazy in my blog entries.

Blume, Judy. Are You There God?: It's Me, Margaret. New York: Dell, 1970.

Growing up isn't easy, but then neither is being a grown-up. (It's an endless battle of the hormones. Once the cramps go away, in march the hot flashes. I don't even want to know what's going to happen a decade from now.) If you want a laugh, read Chelsea Handler's memoir Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea.

Dahl, Roald, and Quentin Blake. Matilda. New York, N.Y: Viking Kestrel, 1988.

The movie is pretty good, but the book is AWESOME! (See what I mean about being lazy?)

City Kids

New York City is a great place for a family vacation. You can tour the NBC studios, ride a double-decker bus, see mummies and knights in shining armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, eat cannoli in Little Italy and taro cakes in Chinatown, catch a space show at the American Museum of Natural History, and for the best view in town--hitch a free ride on the Staten Island Ferry.

No matter what, you absolutely, positively must experience the bright lights of Times Square at night. (Don't worry. The peep shows have been replaced by Disney and M&M's.)

Picture Books:
Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold
The House on East 88th Street by Bernard Waber
Peppe the Lamplighter by Elise Bartone and Ted Lewin
The Man Who Walked Across the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein
Chapter books:
The Teddy Bear Habit by James Lincoln Collier
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
Dave at Night by Gail Carson Levine
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh